


The laws of Mother Nature

by Rogercat



Series: Modern AU; Himring National Park [28]
Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Adopted Children, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dior as Celegorm's adopted son, Fëanorian Week 2021, Gen, Hunters & Hunting, Nature
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 06:29:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30101739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rogercat/pseuds/Rogercat
Summary: Celegorm and Dior have a somewhat normal day in their life, this autumn day
Relationships: Celegorm & Dior, Celegorm | Turcafinwë & Huan, Celegorm | Turcafinwë & Oromë
Series: Modern AU; Himring National Park [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1428016
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	The laws of Mother Nature

It was early September. This school term, there were some new students from the south in the same class as Dior. From what he heard, they had come pretty far south, but also quickly gained a reputation for being troublemakers by not being the most friendly against the new classmates. 

“Hm? Some city kids who seem to not know a single thing about real wilderness?” Celegorm asked, as he was making dinner for himself and Dior, using a smaller duck that he had gotten from a nearby farm some weeks earlier. The teenager had just arrived home from yet another school day, and he was not exactly in a cheerful mood because this time, he had been teased for being “girly-looking” and only narrowly avoided to slam his very thick wildlife-focused dictionary in the head on the new students because he did not want to get in trouble with the teachers for fighting in or outside the classroom. 

“No, they dismissed what the teacher said about the dangers with wildlife that are not very wise to do. Like that just because a wild baby animal may seem cute, it is still a bad idea to pet it because the scent of humans on the baby will cause the mother to abandon it to a cruel, loney death.” 

As usual, Dior had paid attention to details that he would need in his future work as a wildlife rehabilitator, both in his normal school scheme and in the more practical lessons on the Wildlife Aid Center. 

“Well, you said that they were students who had faced badly in previous schools, so perhaps this is their final chance of graduating from High School with acceptable grades. Without anything to hopefully temper them, it will straighten them out before they risk facing a bad adulthood with poorly-paid jobs and other things that could be the result of not taking things seriously.” 

Celegorm was not worried about Dior and his future because of anything related to his studies in school, his adoptive son was a good student without much issues outside the social anxiety that he could still get in a stressful situation with a large crowd, and he was still having talking therapy with Nienna to try and undo some of the damage from his childhood. 

“Are you saying that they are a somewhat mirror of what I could have been? In terms of naiverty about nature?” Dior wondered, not sounding insulted but rather like he tried to figure out if Celegorm was merely joking.

“No. You were blessed with cleverness from birth, and realized early on that taking school seriously, even with being homeschooled, you would get a better adulthood by not slacking off.”

With the roasted duck and vegetables finished in the oven, dinner was ready for serving. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X 

In general, camping in Himring National Park was forbidden. An direct result of the hellish summer of 1950 when the monster bear Morgoth had found humans an easy prey and terrorizing the locals before finally getting shot by the teenage Oromë in a hell of a lucky aim with his gun, and no one among the local government wanted a repeat of that year. 

“Oh great! Who is idiotic enough to actually try and camp in the national park when it is made very clear that it is forbidden!?” Celegorm said in the middle of a loudy set of foul language as he got an alarm message on his cell phone with an order to arrive on site as soon as possible at the entrance of the national park, waking Dior up in the other bedroom. 

“Some people who have not heard about Morgoth the monster bear or how bears can see human food as a sort of take-away?” the teenager suggested as he rubbed sleep out of his eyes, grabbing his private towel for the morning shower since he would soon be on his way to leave the cottage as well. Today was Friday when he would help out at the Wildlife Aid center for learning in real life what to do in his planned job and some leftovers of the duck from yesterday had been used to make a couple of sandwiches that Dior could eat as a snack at the Wildlife Aid Center between lunchtime and coming home in the afternoon. 

“Take-away for animals, good joke!” 

Since Celegorm was in a hurry, he took three of the duck sandwiches as his breakfast alongside a cup of the last coffee from yesterday that he simply reheated in the micro. 

  
  


Because the national park was big, a lot of hunters, park rangers and volunteers needed to be spread out in various places. Even Amrod and Amras joined in, for their work as nature photographers and movie-makers meant that they were familiar with possible places in Himring where it looked to seem like a nice camping place for those who thought in that manner. 

“The night guards noticed smoke from a camping fire in the wee hours of dawn, right?” Celegorm asked his old mentor as they let Huan and another dog sniff around for scents. 

“Yes. Since it was not anywhere near the camping site, it was alarming because it could be the start of a forest fire,” Oromë said, checking his gun so it was ready for a shot if needed. A very fair point for an alarm. Forest fires had to be kept under control, because of all the endangered animal species found here in the national park as a last sanctuary. It had rained a few days previously, but the ground could still be dry after the summer and because the first winter frost was several months away, it could not be any smoke from a misty autumn dawn. 

“Quiet down!”

The order made the two dogs go silent, and they could now hear human screams in the distance. 

“Damn, I hope that it is not Bloody Mary trying to defend her cubs!” 

Given how mother bears were so protective of their young against any sort of threats, it would be really bad if the campers were killed. Sure, they would only have themselves to blame for not following the rules of the national park, but being attacked by a bear was not a quick death. 

  
  


Thankfully, it turned out to not be a bear attack as the two hunters feared. But undoubtedly one of the many ways Mother Nature had a habit of punishing the modern-day humans for their lack of common sense in the wilderness: 

Somehow, the four teenagers had chosen to make camp near a well-filled river, likely in the hope of having easy access to water for cooking food and washing themselves in the morning after a good night's sleep, and now found themselves more or less trapped with their tent in the middle of a very narrow strip of land in the middle of the river. 

“That is what you get for not following the rules of the National Park or acting as if this camping idea was a piece of cake, brats! There is a reason why Mother Nature tends to sort out stupidity early on in historical times, because dumb animals and early humans did not survive to adulthood!” Oromë commented in the middle of laughing at the scene, and that said a lot of what he had seen about the lack of common sense out in nature over his long life. Even Celegorm could not resist laughing, because he could really see how Mother Nature had been very smart in teaching those city-born teenagers a nice first lesson in how to not be camping in the wilderness. 

“This is getting added to the “ _ Examples of how Mother Nature teaches a lesson to foolish humans _ ” exhibition down in the entrance buildings to the National Park!” Celegorm heard to his left, and indeed his twin brothers Amrod and Amras were already having their cameras ready for snapping a few photos. Letting the brothers enjoy their fun, their older brother used his walkie-talkie to tell the rest of the teams that the offenders had been found without being harmed in any manner by wild animals, but also that Mother Nature had given them a nice surprise overnight to find in the morning. 

~X~X~X~X~X~X 

In contrast to the otherwise calm day in the National Park, it was once again proved for Dior that a day at the Wildlife Aid Center was never without drama because of the animals.

“That mother vixen sure is trying her best to regain her needed weight for surviving the coming winter after nursing her kits this year.”

One of the foxes was a vixen, known to have a mate and a den not far from where his paternal grandmother Emeldir lived, but it seemed like the vixen had lost some noticeable weight this year between nursing her offspring and hunting for food, and she did look a little ill because of how thin she was, so she had been taken to the center for a couple of days in the hope of helping her a little extra. 

“Room service with extra large servings, what a luxury for a hard-working mother with offspring for the past three years.” 

Carefully placing the dead chicks on the straw bed so the fox vixen could eat, Dior wrote up the time of this feeding on the list next to the shed where the fox was having her “hotel room” as the staff called it in this sort of situation. 

  
  


When Celegorm arrived home that evening, father and son talked about how their respective day had been while they made dinner together. 

“So it was them who sneaked away to camp in the national park, after all! When I was having my last lesson yesterday and the class talked a little about what we would do during the weekend, I somehow felt like they seemed to be that sort of people! Grandma Emeldir says that there have been some spiritual abilities in my paternal family too over the centuries according to what great-uncle Bregolas have told her in the past, so perhaps I sensed that they would get into trouble today?” 

Peeling the last carrot, Celegorm added it to the rest of the vegetables that would be boiled. He was not surprised that Dior had learned a such detail; the late Barahir Ladros had been more of a defender than a farmer unlike his younger brother, and a agreement between them had ensured that Bregolas would take over the family farm while Barahir found his personal calling by being a soldier that would help in various international humanitarian non-governmental organisations. 

“Yes. The police officers promised that there was no way they would remain in Formenos after this stunt. If they can not obey such a rule that was made especially to avoid a scenario like with Morgoth again, then the High school shall not need to be bothered with them again. They wasted their last chance to fix their schooling while still young enough to not screw up too badly.” 

Having a hunter as an adoptive father had taught Dior many things, and this situation was one of them. Even if you would not need a college degree for all kinds of jobs, it was very foolish to ruin your own chances to an improved life in adulthood by messing up in school. 

**Author's Note:**

> In canon Bregolas is the older brother of Barahir, but in this modern AU their birth order was swapped to help explaining why Barahir, and Dior though him, is the current heir to inheriting the family heirloom called the Ring of Barahir in canon (here a royal ring given to a OC firstborn son of Bëor the Old, but later inherited by his in-canon oldest son Baran after that the older son died at a early age)


End file.
